Explanation:
Dark shapes with bright edges winging their way through dusty
NGC
6188 are tens of light-years long.
The emission nebula is found near the edge of an
otherwise dark large molecular cloud in the southern
constellation
Ara, about 4,000 light-years away.
Formed in that region only a few million years ago, the massive young
stars of the embedded Ara
OB1 associationsculpt the fantastic shapes and
power the nebular glow with
stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation.
The recent
star
formation itself was likely triggered by
winds and supernova explosions, from previous generations of massive
stars, that swept up and compressed the molecular gas.
A false-color
Hubble palette was used to create
this sharp close-up image
and shows emission from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms
in red, green, and blue hues.
At the estimated distance of NGC 6188, the picture spans
about 200 light-years.